Black Doves – Episode 3 “The Coming Night” Recap & Review

The Coming Night

Episode 3 of Black Doves begins with Sam back in 2014. This actually happens to be right at the moment Helen heads back inside the hotel. Sam returns to Reed and she brings up how he’s been pestering her to be part of the organization. Reed is bemused at him offering to be a triggerman for Lenny and points out that no one really knows if they can do it until they try. If Sam does work with Lenny, he can’t work for Reed, as their two objectives don’t align. Reed is all about gaining information espionage style. Lenny is all about killing and getting the job done.

Sam is briefed by Lenny, who’s similarly bemused that this is his first time doing a job like this. Still, Sam shows up at the scheduled spot and kills his target. However, his hands are shaking and Lenny soon rings, promising that this will be the hardest kill he completes.

Six months later, Sam trains Helen in how to fight and kill. This is also where he first meets Michael too, and it seems to be love at first sight as they lock eyes across the bar. As fate would have it, their first dinner is actually at the same restaurant he completed his first hit at.

Fast forward to 2017 and both Michael and Sam are getting along like a house on fire. They’re very much an item, while Helen is also cozying up to Wallace and settling into her job. In fact, news breaks of the Conservatives winning a majority and, subsequently, Wallace and Helen back in the limelight.

Sam is very much in the deep with Lenny, and his latest job is taking out the Newman brothers. There are three of them, and a fourth called Hector, but she doesn’t have a picture. However, Lenny does specifically ask him to kill the boy too. And yes, Hector is very much a kid.

In the backseat, after killing all three brothers, Sam opens up the door and finds he can’t kill an innocent. He can’t do it, and thus, this explains why Lenny is not happy in the present.

The next morning, an assassin breaks into Sam’s apartment. He manages to take the first guy out, but it’s clear that Hector is the one orchestrating this as several cars rocks up downstairs. It also explains why Sam went on the run initially.

Back in the present, Sam speaks to Lenny about what he’s found. Hector appears to be in Peckham, holding up with the troops in his “fortress” but Lenny is worried. She knows he has a good heart and that, combined with blood on his hands, doesn’t make a great combination. Especially not in this field of work.

Sam recruits the two cold assassins working alongside Lenny (Williams and Eleanor) to storm the base with him before meeting Helen for coffee. This isn’t just some chitchat though, as Helen brings up the recording and believes they need to hone in on Stephen Yarrick to get answers.

At the school nativity, Sam confronts Stephen and makes him sweat. At least to begin with anyway. Stephen refuses to disclose who he’s working with, including a number saved as ‘Repair Shop’ in his phone. Stephen eventually walks away, claiming that he can’t help. Sam lets him go but dumps Stephen’s phone inside Jacqueline’s bag.

Helen decides to message ‘Repair Shop’, promising that she’ll find them. Only, they get a message back saying the same. The cat and mouse chase is on! Helen is rattled but she puts on her game face and heads out for the evening soiree with Wallace.

Wallace has a meeting with the Chinese, who obviously aren’t too happy about everything going down. In the kitchen, the Chinese bring up how they believe the Police are complicit in the crime of covering up the Ambassador’s death. They have footage from outside Kai-ming’s apartment, where a man named Cole Atwood fled the scene, an hour before Kai-ming was kidnapped. Cole is a CIA agent, and also Kai-ming’s boyfriend.

They’ve managed to trace his movements from the murder scene all the way back to the American embassy. And he hasn’t left since. The thing is, there’s no footage of what happened inside Kai-ming’s apartment, almost as if its been erased, and this implicates Cole and the Americans.

Now, given the Americans seem to be connected to all of this, the Chinese want a solution – and they want it now.

In the wake of this, Helen speaks to Dani, Wallace’s assistant. She’s wearing some funky socks (linked back to the flirting done over messages where Helen perceived this was about underwear). Helen doesn’t broach the subject though as she receives a call from “Repair Shop”, with footage of Stephen being brutally tortured… and then murdered.

Both Helen and Wallace are called away, but as they leave, Dani claims that “when a door closes, a window opens”, and that phrase strikes a chord with her.

This isn’t the first time that Helen has had to up and leave quickly though. That incident in the past with Michael we left off during the flashbacks earlier? Well, Sam phoned Helen and had her help get Michael out. Sam ended up shot in the process, but it also solidified that Helen would stay in this line of work, in too deep to go now.

In the present, Sam shows up with Williams and Eleanor, ready to shoot Hector’s base up and take out our guy once and for all.

The Episode Review

So Black Doves returns with an intriguing episode diving into both Helen and Sam’s backstories and seeing how they came into their respective jobs, and how the line between personal and professional is blurred while working undercover.

The drama involving Dani is fascinating too as she could actually be connected to all of this, given her little phrase about a window opening. This could be a code-word, or it could be connected to the bigger picture. Furthermore, the earlier suggestion that Wallace was having an affair too may actually be false. Their playing over messaging seems to be relating to festive socks, rather than anything illicit.

Either way though, Black Doves is just starting to soar, and this episode is a much-improved chapter, given the drama that’s taken place. One thing’s for sure though, business is about to pick up from here on in!